The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton wrote an article entitled “deja vu now unavoidable” after the Red Wings’ 5-2 loss to the Washington Capitals last night, in which Stockton discusses that sinking feeling that this year’s Red Wings are engaging in the same down-the-stretch collapse that doomed their playoff push a year ago at this time.
That’s true, but as the Red Wings attempt to reset themselves amidst a 5-game losing streak, with a near-must-win game against Ottawa looming on Monday, I liked what coach Todd McLellan had to say about the team’s level of confidence post-game, as noted by Stockton:
“We didn’t go to the mall and lose our confidence,” coach Todd McLellan told reporters, when asked about his team’s confidence. “It doesn’t fall out of your pocket. You tend to gain it and then you give it back as a group, so if we’re talking like that, we have to look at each other or look at ourselves and figure out what we can do better individually and collectively. We need to have a real good practice on Sunday, and we need to go to Ottawa, and we’re gonna play a real hard game there. They’re a real good hockey club right now, playing good hockey. That’s the way it should be at this time of the year. It’s hard at this time of the year, and our guys are learning that.”
The Wings took today off as the team played 3 games over the course of the 4 previous days and nights, and as the Wings will now play every other day for a total of 5 games over 9 nights starting on Monday, the team and the coaching staff alike needed to rest, recover, and reset mentally as they nurse their mental and physical bruises (and, by this time of the year, everybody is nursing some sort of minor injury).
Detroit will return to the ice at Little Caesars Arena tomorrow, and the team and the coaching staff will attempt to stop the bleeding. It’s not an ideal situation to be in, but this is a team with a younger core than last year’s, which is learning the hard way–by making mistakes–and in hockey, learning by making mistakes means that the puck ends up in the back of your net too often.
Yes, the Red Wings can get better goaltending, play better defense, score more 5-on-5 and on the power play, and play more consistently over the course of 20-minute periods and 60-minute games.
But they’ve gotta take it a day at a time, a game at a time, a period at a time and a shift at a time, just like the rest of us, doing their best to improve as they are able.
We are where we are at, so dealing with reality is part of our job description right now.
